"We are very pleased to have Dr. Kenney serve in this role," said Ralph Richardson, dean of the college. "His expertise as a researcher along with his energy and passion for higher education will help move the department and college forward in contributing to K-State's 2025 goal of being a Top 50 public research university."

Kenney was previously the associate head of the anatomy and physiology department and became the interim head in 2011. He has also been serving as the college's director of the Veterinary Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program and the Basic Research Immersion Training Experience, or BRITE program, and co-director of the Veterinary Research Scholars Program.

Kenney received his doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1988 and completed postdoctoral training in central autonomic neurophysiology from 1988 to 1990 in the pharmacology department at the College of Medicine, Michigan State University. From 1990 to 1992, he was an assistant professor in the biology department at Rhodes College and an adjunct assistant professor in the physiology and biophysics department in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. He joined the anatomy and physiology department at Kansas State University as an assistant professor in 1992, was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1996, and promoted to professor in 2002.

Kenney's research is focused on understanding regulation of the sympathetic nervous system by combining central and peripheral electrophysiological methods with molecular biological techniques to study mechanisms regulating central sympathetic outflow. He has received extensive extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association and other funding agencies. He is currently the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on three NIH grants.

The author or co-author of more than 60 scientific articles and 50 abstracts, Kenney has served on NIH and American Heart Association study sections, is a peer reviewer for several professional journals, and is a member of the American Physiological Society and the American Heart Association. In 2000, the College of Veterinary Medicine recognized Kenney with the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence. He was recently selected as an invited author for a chapter in the Autonomic Neuroscience portion of "Comprehensive Physiology," which will update the American Physiological Society's highly regarded "Handbook of Physiology" series.

Kenney has extensive experience teaching and coordinating courses in the professional and graduate programs in the College of Veterinary Medicine. He has taught the autonomic and central neural sections of veterinary pharmacology for 20 years, and has coordinated or co-coordinated this course for the past 12 years. In addition, he coordinates the graduate course Introduction to Responsible Conduct of Biomedical Research, which provides an introduction to the professional and ethical considerations that define responsible conduct of biomedical research.